1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to apparatus for use in cooling and/or drying or cleaning elongate material, particularly, but not exclusively, material such as a wire, tube or strip which has passed through a drawing die or forming rolls.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In the drawing of wire, tube or strip material, it is essential to cool the drawn elongate material to prevent it reaching temperatures which can effect its structure and it is also desirable to cool the die through which the material is drawn. There are many other instances where it is essential to cool a heated elongate material and the present invention is therefore not limited to drawing processes.
Elongate materials are sometimes cooled by the use of a cooling liquid and after cooling the wire it is usually necessary to dry the material. It is known to subject the wet material to a blast of compressed air in order to dry the material.
In applicants' application Ser. No. 493,906, there has been disclosed a drawing box in which a cooling liquid, such as water, is provided to cool the die and the material as it leaves the die, the material after passing through the water being passed through a chamber in which the pressure is at a sub-atmospheric pressure so that the cooling liquid which is on the surface of the elongate material is evaporated and advantage is taken of the higher latent heat of evaporation at the sub-atmospheric pressure to further cool and dry the elongate material.
Applicants have found that increased cooling of the elongate material can be achieved if the material on leaving the die is immediately passed through a partial vacuum before passing through the cooling liquid.
In the East German Pat. No. 128,482, there is described a method and apparatus for drying and cooling wire following a drawing process. However, the heated wire, emerging from the die is immediately introduced into a cooling liquid after which it is directed into a chamber of sub-atmospheric pressure for drying the material by evaporative cooling.